92 ANIMALS AND INSECTS 



time until it makes its cradle and goes into that 

 deep sleep which ends in its change into a beautiful, 

 winged creature. 



The mother of a caterpillar is a butterfly or a 

 moth. She lays her pretty eggs upon a leaf of the 

 kind of plant which she knows is good for the cater- 

 pillar to eat, and then off she goes and leaves them 

 for the sun to hatch. Butterflies and moths are not 

 so careful of their babies as the ants and bees or as 

 the birds. But when the sun has hatched the baby 

 caterpillars they find themselves sitting upon their 

 own dinner table, and they do not have to hunt for 

 food, it is right there spread out before them. They 

 do not waste much time in getting to work, either, 

 and they very quickly have eaten so much that 

 they have to change their skins. That is the way 

 insects grow. As soon as one of these baby cater- 

 pillars has eaten as much as it can hold, it crawls 

 away from the edge of the leaf and makes a tiny 

 silk cushion or button which attaches the end of its 

 body firmly to the leaf. Then the skin upon its head 

 cracks and splits open and the baby caterpillar pulls 

 itself out of the old skin. 



It is a very pretty sight to watch it. First it 

 wriggles its neck free, then pulls out, in succession, 

 each pair of feet, pushing the old skin down with 

 each foot as it is pulled out. Finally it pushes the 

 old skin away with the last pair of feet, and is free. 

 It is done just the way you might take off one of 

 your garments, pulling out your arms, then pushing 

 it down and stepping on it to pull out your feet. 

 Think of a baby caterpillar taking off his skin 



